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Holdsworth Stephen

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Stephen Holdsworth

The son of an Anglican priest, Stephen had his first gay experiences in London in his mid-teens, but it was when he went to Edinburgh University, where he studied Divinity, that he formed his identity as a gay man.

He was strongly drawn to left politics, liberation theology and sexual politics, and became a member of the Communist Party. Stephen was one of the organisers of a lesbian and gay socialist conference in Edinburgh in 1984, and was active in supporting the miners' strike. He jointly created a number of flamboyant political banners, a favourite of which was "Pinko Commie Queers", the banner of the CPGB Lesbian and Gay Network, fashioned from pink net.

For a time, he worked in the HR department at Napier University in Edinburgh but a series of ill-health issues dogged him during the 1990s and he died aged 47 in 2009.